1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique for controlling progress of a video game by displaying a player character on an image display screen of an image display apparatus, and by controlling an action of the characters displayed on the image display screen in response to operation(s) by a player.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various kinds of so-called role playing games (RPG; that is, a game in which a player plays a role of a character in a world of the game, and accomplishes a predetermined object while enjoying a process that the character grows through various experiences) have been provided.
Part of the appeal of a RPG is generally a scene in which a player character acting in response to operations by the player executes a battle against an enemy character thwarting accomplishment of a predetermined object in the RPG. However, in a conventional battle scene, actions of the player character and the enemy character are alternately executed one by one. For this reason, realism (realistic sensation) of an action scene (in particular, a battle scene) was low.
In order to solve the problem, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 6-105959 discloses that an enemy character attacks a game character when specific setting time for the enemy character elapses without stopping lapse of time even while the player inputs a command for the game character. Specifically, in this patent application publication, it is adopted a gauge filling in accordance with lapse of time during a battle between the game character and the enemy character. The player can input a command for the game character when the gauge is full. Thus, realism (realistic sensation) of a battle scene is improved.
However, in the invention disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 6-105959, the player is required to wait until a gauge is filled up in order to input a command. In this case, for example, in the case where a simple command such as “defense” is to be activated, or in the case where a so-called “special weapon” having the high degree of difficulty and great destructive power is to be activated, time to fill the gauge up is the same as each other. Further, a player character cannot attack an enemy character continuously or sequentially. Moreover, commands cannot be combined. For this reason, realism (realistic sensation) of a video game is lowered, and such a video game lowers or reduces interest of the player in the video game.
Heretofore, as a method of improving ability (such as offensive power and defensive power) of a player character in a video game, it has been adopted a method of applying accessories and/or items whose ability can be changed. However, since the player character can obtain such an accessory or an item only in a specific scene (for example, the player discovers it on its way of progress of the video game, or the player character clears a predetermined mission), this technique causes lack of interest of the player in the video game.